May 23, 2011

Independence Bowl

The Wiz of Odds is conducting a comprehensive study of bowl game expense reports. All of the data collected — expense reports for 56 teams and bowl surveys for 40 teams — are being posted on the site. Here is the latest installment. For an overview of the project, click here.

The Independence Bowl, played in Shreveport, La., is operated by the nonprofit Independence Bowl Foundation. It was named in honor of the United States' 200th birthday in 1976, also the year of the first game.

2010 participants: Air Force and Georgia Tech.

Air Force expenses: The Falcons reported to the NCAA total expenses of $459,648, but according to data on page 2 of the pdf, that figure is incorrect. It appears that Air Force fudged its numbers. Air Force claimed it sold more than its allotted 11,000 tickets by 1,098 for a total of 12,098. But the academy reports it sold each ticket for $25 rather than the agreed price of $45. It then claims to have made a profit of $49,388 on the sale of the extra 1,098 tickets and lists each ticket value at $45. Using the $45 value as a base price throughout, Air Force's total expenses were actually $600,533, not the $459,648 it reported to the NCAA. Under other expenses, the school listed $11,545 for travel expenses for coaches' families. Download Air Force Expenses

Air Force did not complete a bowl survey.

Georgia Tech expenses: The school reported that it absorbed 5,474 tickets at a cost of $235,150 and had total expenses of $1.17 million. Other expenses of $287,258 are listed as "salary supplements & fringe." Download Georgia Tech Expenses

Survey: Athletic director Dan Radakovich is apparently not a fan of the Transportation Security Administration in Shreveport.

"The bowl staff is probably not aware of the most unpleasant experience during departure at the Shreveport Airport," he wrote. "The TSA staff was inadequate in size and provided the most thorough inspection of each passenger ever experienced. It literally took 2 hours to process 190 passengers through check-in and there were no other people in the entire airport. Not a Bowl responsibility but nonetheless relfects [sic] on the final impression of the trip."

Although Radakovich did not rate his level of satisfaction for the overall bowl experience, he expressed satisfaction throughout the survey except for two additional areas. The first was the number of complimentary suites, which he gave a "neutral" rating.

"Georgia Tech could have used more suite rooms in the hotel than were available," he wrote.

He also gave a "neutral" rating to the number of complimentary gifts for athletes.

"The NCAA standard of 125 participant gifts clearly does not cover the needs of the official party," he wrote. "This is not meant to be a criticism of the Indpendence [sic] Bowl, merely an observation for NCAA staff consideration." Download Georgia Tech Survey

Burdell sounds like a moron. Rad spent over a million of his department's budget on that trip. To expect the experience to be worthy of that expense is reasonable. He's also not the only one to experience unreasonable hassle from TSA.